Palace of Stone (2006)
Palace of Stone is a 2006 mountains book written by Shannon Hale.
Miri Larendaughter trades the quarry village of Mount Eskel for Asland, the grand capital, arriving to study at the Queen's Castle academy and to attend a royal wedding. Shannon Hale's sequel to Princess Academy widens the world beyond the mountain, setting a sharp country girl among city scholars, court politics and questions of fairness she never faced at home. Miri leans on her schooling in rhetoric and reason as unrest stirs around a new charter meant to give ordinary people a fairer deal. Warm, thoughtful middle-grade fantasy about loyalty, learning and finding your footing far from home.
Quick answers
What is Palace of Stone about?
Miri Larendaughter trades the quarry village of Mount Eskel for Asland, the grand capital, arriving to study at the Queen's Castle academy and to attend a royal wedding. Shannon Hale's sequel to Princess Academy widens the world beyond the mountain, setting a sharp country girl among city scholars, court politics and questions of fairness she never faced at home. Miri leans on her schooling in rhetoric and reason as unrest stirs around a new charter meant to give ordinary people a fairer deal. Warm, thoughtful middle-grade fantasy about loyalty, learning and finding your footing far from home.
When was Palace of Stone published?
Palace of Stone was published in 2006.
Who made Palace of Stone?
Palace of Stone was written by Shannon Hale.
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A few thoughts on Palace of Stone
Fans of grounded young-heroine fantasy will find kin in Pixar's Brave, where another mountain girl pushes against expectation, and Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service, about a young woman making her way in a big new city. The game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers the same wide-open sense of a small figure in a vast, storybook kingdom.
Fantasy schools where learning is the real power
Palace of Stone sends Miri from a quarry village to the Queen's Castle academy, where rhetoric and reason matter more than muscle. These stories share that faith in study, following students who climb, compete and argue their way through schools and trials where knowledge itself is the test worth passing.
Princesses who'd rather rule than be rescued
Miri arrives in Asland for a royal wedding and finds court politics thornier than any exam, and Palace of Stone gives its heroines real work to do. These crowns-and-castles tales do the same, handing their princesses schemes to untangle and kingdoms to steady instead of thrones to simply sit on.
Warm fantasy adventures for younger readers
Palace of Stone is warm, thoughtful middle-grade fantasy about loyalty and finding your footing far from home. These gentle adventures fit the same shelf, mixing small brave heroes, talking creatures and quests sized for younger readers who want wonder without the grimness of the epic doorstops.